Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Syracuse

The last time I was in Bank Place, David and I had quite happily, accidentally stumbled on to it and whilst we ooh-ed and aah-ed at Syracuse from the outside, ended up at Cafe Vue for lunch. Which I certainly can't complain about anyway.

But since then, it has been somewhere that's been on my mind quite frequently, especially since it is also in the Entertainment book. Whilst there are a plethora of other amazing restaurants in that book, Syracuse just stood out to me and reading Joyce's review of it didn't help me either.

So to my delight, gorgeous Caryn decided to celebrate her birthday at Silk Road on Collins St and, lo and behold, Bank Place is pretty much directly across the road from it. Oh Braaaaaaaaaaaaad!

Although I didn't expect it to be particularly busy on a Saturday night, I figured to be on the safe side it wasn't a bad idea to make a booking. I think it was a pretty good idea I did. As we shuffled in from the cold weather outside, the warmly lit room, somewhat resembling a rich man's wine lounge room (surely they exist) up in the French Alps somewhere, it was quietly humming with a number of tables occupied with a slightly older crowd than Brad and I.

I was immediately charmed upon walking in, there's a decadence to the place that is not pretentious, with beautiful wooden floors, a pillar or two and an assortment of wines scattered around the place on display.

We were seated on a puny round marble table, which fortunately had a little space next to us to pop our drinks on, or it would've been a juggle to fit everything on to the table. Shortly after being seated we were also asked if we'd like our coats to be taken, which I always think is a lovely touch, I was wearing a pretty dress that night after all!

The wine list at Syracuse is incredibly extensive, there's even an index at the front should you get lost browsing through it's pages. This evening we decided to go with a bottle of white wine and got a Pinot Grigio from Australia, always light and easy to drink. That and it didn't send me into a strange giggling fit again...

The dinner menu at Syracuse has a variety of small 'share' plates, tapas style, which Melbourne is indeed so fond of and a few main dishes, including a 1kg beef dish for $120....maybe a bit more than Brad and I were feeling that night...

So we opted to get a number of share plates, as per usual, more flavours please! We started with a pan fried calamari, with rocket and a lemon and chilli dressing. The calamari was just superb, the texture to die for! It had a spring in it when you crunched on it, but was hardly chewy, in fact being the exact opposite, one bite going right through. I could go on, it was really cooked impeccably.

The waitress gave us the oddest look when we first asked about this dish.

"So this pig's head....it's not a whole pig's head is it..."

I figured it wasn't for $16, but it didn't hurt to ask. So what they've done is taken all the meat in the head of the pig and smushed it together into these gorgeous lightly crumbed patties. Which are delicious as you can just taste the richness from the natural fats which have just oozed their way around during the course of cooking. I also love the little fried quail eggs (aren't they just the cutest things?) which cut from the richness of the patties slightly. Possibly my favourite dish of the night.

Spanner crab remoulade, with a perfectly poached egg, beautiful firm egg white and oozing yolk, served chilled. Quite a nice little breather in the meal, the cool, crispness refreshing the mouth and providing a gentle flavour palette. I can't remember for the life of me what the greens were underneath, but it added an interesting texture to the dish.

Lastly we got the lamb cutlets, served with a couple of strips of roasted capsicum, whilst these were unoffensive, compared to everything else we had it was a little bit underwhelming. I found some of the lamb was a little bit too charred for my liking as well and the overall presentation of the dish well, was not was refined as say the spanner crab remoulade. But I suppose there's only so much you can do with lamb cutlets now right?

After all this, I was feeling fairly comfortable, but as usual could not resist a peek at the dessert menu.

And then this materialized on to our table. Hmm. How'd this happen?! A cheesecake mousse, served on a nutty, biscuit-y bed of crumbs. Absolutely delightful, although it messes with your head a bit, as you taste the delicateness of the cheesecake but feel the lightness of the mousse on your tongue. It really was delicious though, with a slight citrus tinge and the nuttiness of the crumbs, flavour and texture, went so beautifully with it as well. Definitely recommended!

At one point in the evening I had to skip off to the ladies' and upon my return, Brad had noted that not just one, but two people came by to twist up my lazily dropped napkin. One to pick off the chair and fold and a second who came by and rolled it up all prettily. Talk about attention to detail! This service I feel was certainly reflected all evening with attentive and friendly service.

We certainly enjoyed our dinner and I do wish I didn't just get one scratch on the Entertainment Card as it would be certainly be more incentive to pop by again...